Police numbers could be cut by 65,000, IFS says

Police numbers could be cut by 65,000 as the Home Office tries to cut its
spending, the Institute of Fiscal Studies has said.

By James Kirkup

4:05PM GMT 02 Feb 2011

The Home Office is planning to cut spending on police wages by 20 per cent over four years.

The IFS set out the options for achieving that goal, highlighting significant difficulties.

If police recruitment and wages are both frozen for four years, the budget cut could be delivered by not replacing 26,000 police officers and 22,000 support officers who would naturally retire or find new jobs.

But since a recruitment freeze would push up the average age – and therefore wages – of officers, the IFS said that police wages are likely to rise by 2 per cent.

That would mean that the 20 per cent cut in the overall wage bill would require the departure of 35,000 officers and 30,000 support officers.